With both the right and the left invoking Ronald Reagan during this stranger-than-fiction election season, it’s hard to tell just how future history books will remember the former president. While he wasn’t nearly as conservative as some of his acolytes are today, it’s clear that he and Nancy certainly lived more conservatively than one might expect, particularly after they left the White House for Bel Air, California, in 1989. Hitting the auction block at Christie’s New York during Americana Week this September, many of their furnishings from the ranch-style house where they lived out their post-presidential lives reveal a couple who lived the good life, in moderation. Most of the furniture and decorative arts lots are under $10,000—a surprisingly modest collection of wares.

Taking a cue from the Hollywood Regency style of his mentor Billy Haines, Ted Graber steered the Reagans toward a mix of chinoiserie, exoticism, fine antiques, and modern lines.

Photo: Joe Schmelzer, Treasurbite Studio

Benefiting the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, the sale, which also includes books, memorabilia, some paintings, and Nancy’s jewelry, follows the passing earlier this year of Nancy, who did, in fact, embrace the finer points of interior design. When the couple moved into the White House, in 1981, the family quarters were badly in need of attention, having barely been touched since Jackie Kennedy’s era. Nancy invited Los Angeles interior designer Ted Graber—a protégé and business partner of William “Billy” Haines—the inimitable king of Hollywood Regency, that sumptuous mix of modernism, exoticism, and antique elegance—to help. When the Reagans left the White House, Graber helped decorate their Bel Air pad, too.

The Reagans were frequent entertainers, hosting a record 55 State Department dinners while in the White House. They continued to welcome friends to their Bel Air home, and certainly had the accoutrements to enjoy a fine cocktail.

Photo: Joe Schmelzer, Treasurbite Studio

Haines, a silent screen star turned interior design legend (after the studios banished him for refusing to hide his homosexuality), was the designer of choice to the Beverly Hills elite, and Nancy was a big fan in the ’60s and early ’70s. While she couldn’t quite afford the full Billy Haines treatment, the designer did take care of some touches at the Reagan’s pre–White House Pacific Palisades home. When Haines passed away in 1973, Graber carried on the tradition, toning down the flamboyance as tastes changed. He transformed the White House private quarters into a comfortable, stylish setting, mixing pieces designed by Billy Haines Inc. with antiques Nancy had inherited from her family, as well as some select antiques from the White House’s vaults, and then emulated that mix in Bel Air.

Graber decorated the Reagans’ Bel Air home in a style that interior designer Peter Schifando describes as “soft modern,” integrating more traditional pieces into the midcentury-modern architecture.

Photo: Joe Schmelzer, Treasurbite Studio

The sale includes pieces from both the White House and the Bel Air home, with quite a bit of Chinese export porcelain, George III–style furniture, Chinese lacquer furniture, midcentury pieces updated in the ’80s, Haines Inc. sofas and chairs, State Department gifts, barware, several porcelain dinner services (the Reagans often entertained at the White House), and some spectacular bird and fish lamps.

“Graber’s style was ‘soft modern’—a mix of traditional and modern. The Bel Air house was midcentury-modern style, built in 1954, and it was a matter of making their things feel right there,” says Peter Schifando, an interior designer who worked with Graber and the coauthor of several books, including Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan (William Morrow, 2007). As for the relative modesty of the Reagans: “They were not pretentious at all, coming from California,” says Schifando. “Ted used to say that surprised the East Coasters.” See some of the highlights from the sale below. christies.com/reagan

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